Fuel Cell vehicles see progress via Daimler

Daimler is making some progress in the fuel cell vehicle market, partnering with the Linde Group to construct and install twenty hydrogen fueling stations in Germany that are supplied by completely renewable resources.

Currently, there are only seven public hydrogen fuel cell stations in the country, but the automaker says as little a five fueling centers are necessary to maintain proper infrastructure in most major cities. The new units will be deployed in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Hamburg, as well as some strategic locations that will allow fuel cell vehicle owners to drive anywhere within the country for the first time.

In conjunction with the fueling station announcement, affilate company Mercedes-Benz celebrated the conclusion of an around-the-world journey completed by three of its B-Class F-Cell cars. The vehicles drove over 18,000 miles, across fourteen countries, and four continents, but had to be refueled by a mobile unit, since there are only around 200 hydrogen stations worldwide.

Equipped with a 136 horsepower electric motor, 1.4 kWh lithium-ion battery storage, and a 12 kilogram hydrogen tank system, the B-Class F-Cell has a range of almost 250 miles, but so far, only a few hundred have been delivered to customers.

Source: Aaron Colter, EarthTechling